People who call Little Rock Athletic Club looking for a personal trainer tend to ask the same questions.
Usually, they simply want to know who’s available at what time, program / fitness director Lisa Cooper said. Often they prefer working with a male rather than a female trainer, or vice versa.
They hardly ever ask for credentials or references, hardly ever mention liability insurance.
In fact there are a lot of questions “they don’t tend to ask and they should,” Cooper said.
Personal trainers can command $ 50 to $ 250 an hour — depending on the area of the country where they work — but they aren’t required to have degrees in kinesiology or nutrition or other health-related fields. There’s no national standard for personal trainers, and only a few states have considered legislation to require personal trainers who practice in the state to be licensed.
“It’s an unregulated industry right now,” said Dino Costanzo, the director of the departments of Health Promotion, Bariatrics and Cardiology at the Hospital of Central Connecticut in New Britain and Southington, Conn.
“There are over 100 organizations credentialing. Until legislation is written that prevents people from calling themselves personal trainers, the public beware,” said Costanzo, who was the chairman of the American College of Sports Medicine’s certification and registry boards committee.
Richard Cotton, national director of certification for the same organization, said there are ways prospective clients can make sure they’re hiring a qualified — not just certified — personal trainer. He and others in the fitness field stressed the importance of checking references and ensuring that a trainer has been certified through an accredited program.
More than 100 groups might hand out trainer credentials but only 10 organizations are accredited by the National Organization for Competency Assurance to certify personal trainers. Those are listed on the organization’s Web site, noca. org.
The list doesn’t include many certifying programs that supposedly test trainers for competence: “There are exams that are very easy to pass,” Cotton explained.
He cited the Web site expertrating. com which sells personal training, Pilates, aerobics, sports nutrition and healthclub-management certifications for $ 49. 99 each. Cotton and Cooper prefer that trainers have a degree in a field such as kinesiology. New trainers at Little Rock Athletic Club have to learn the ropes on the weight floor before they can consult clients one on one, Cooper said. The training helps them build practical skills and a rapport with club members. The club has about 15 trainers; their biographies are housed in plastic bins in various locations around the sprawling gym. Hour-long sessions cost $ 50; 30-minute sessions are $ 35. Cooper said so many clients read up on fitness that trainers need a strong knowledge base just to keep up.
COVERED Cooper also recommended checking to see whether a trainer has liability insurance. The club’s trainers are employees and insured by the gym, but many trainers are private contractors and would need to have their own liability coverage. Insurance is also on a checklist from the American Council on Exercise, which Cooper said provides advice that anyone hiring a personal trainer should heed. The checklist stresses the importance of hiring a certified trainer, asking for references and finding out whether the trainer can help a client meet special needs. Few people who call the club stick to such a checklist, Cooper said. Said Cotton: “Those hiring a personal trainer should look ideally for a degree and years of experience.” About two-thirds of his organization’s 18, 000 personal trainers have undergraduate degrees in related fields, Cotton said. The certifying program takes about six months to prepare for and culminates in a weekend workshop. An online check of other accredited programs showed that preparation generally takes one to three months or more, and most culminate in weekend training and examinations.
RED FLAGS Cotton said savvy consumers would steer clear of anyone hawking products or asking a client to pay a lot of money upfront. While it’s not unusual for clubs to offer discount packages for clients who sign up for a set number of sessions in advance, clients should pay no more than three months ahead, Cotton said. On a budget ? Cotton recommends asking for a discount package or hiring a trainer for periodic workout tuneups rather than daily or weekly sessions. “Are you motivated to floss your teeth when you have a dental appointment ?” he asked rhetorically. “They’re going to know whether you’ve been exercising or not.” Dr. Walter Thompson, a professor of kinesiology and health at Georgia State University and an American College of Sports Medicine fellow, said the consequences of poor training can be “anything from minor injury to death.” Thompson serves as an expert witness in lawsuits against personal trainers whose clients allege negligence. Ten years ago such lawsuits were rare. While Thompson didn’t have hard statistics on the number of such lawsuits today, he’s currently involved in three cases. He said one recent lawsuit, which was settled out of court, involved an Alabama man who went to a 30-minute, free training session at a nationally known chain and became disabled afterward.
“Thirty minutes later he could hardly get up off the floor,” Thompson said.
While a little encouragement is fine, trainers need to listen when a client says he needs to stop, Thompson said. “That’s a danger sign for most people.”
Thompson is part of an effort to license personal trainers in Georgia. While no state requires such a license, similar legislation has been introduced in California, Nevada and Maryland.
“In the state of Georgia, we license people who cut our hair, but people who put us through a personal training session don’t have to have a license,” Thompson said. “In many cases if we look good in our leotards, we’ll be hired as a personal trainer.”
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While looks aren’t the only criteria, for some, checking out a trainer’s physique just makes sense.
“I didn’t look at credentials or any of that stuff,” said Cindy Holland, who works out with personal trainer Robert Farqua four times a week from 5: 30 to 6 a. m.
She did check out Farqua’s physique. “Find somebody first who looks good,” Holland said she’d tell people considering hiring a personal trainer.
The recommendation of a friend who’d worked with him for five years carried the most weight for Holland.
Farqua’s studio in Little Rock, Arkansas Fitness, has gobs of equipment, walls lined with movie posters — similar to a boxing gym — and three freeroaming cats.
On a recent Monday, Holland, who’s vice president of ancillary services at Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock, was working her “pulling” muscles, including her hamstrings and muscles in her back. After years of avid exercise, Holland says she was looking for more of a challenge. “He can whip your butt in 30 minutes,” she said.
“I can tell a huge difference in my body,” said Holland, a fit 54-year-old who runs and cycles regularly. She’s been working with Farqua for three years. She said Farqua’s fee is reasonable, but asked that it not be published. Farqua declined to comment for this article.
Holland recommends finding someone who’s a good listener. While she likes that Farqua is strict, she also likes that he knows her limits and will pay attention if her knee — she had surgery on it in the late 1980 s — is aching.
Other Little Rock residents who use personal trainers also emphasized the importance of a good rapport.
One recent morning at Little Rock Athletic Club, Jill Cady, 36, spoke about her trainer before finishing a workout with some abdominal exercises. Cady began working with personal trainer Nancy De Bin five years ago when she wanted to add strength training to her fitness regimen. She’d taken circuit classes to learn technique, but once they were over she tended to overexert and injure herself.
She says De Bin spices up her workout and has inspired her to try Pilates and Zumba. The two work together twice a week. Cady gave birth to her third child five months ago, and worked with De Bin three times a week well into her pregnancy. De Bin even consulted with Cady’s doctor, who also exercises at the club.
Cady said she’s known De Bin for 15 years so she didn’t really need to interview her, but suggested that anyone else who’s looking for a trainer should do just that. She also suggested finding a trainer who can give advice on nutrition as well as exercise, which is of particular importance to the breast-feeding mother. “You want to find somebody who’s well-rounded that fits your personality, that you’ll stick with long term,” she said.
On the same morning, Traci Horton, 41, was outside the club with trainer Tina Glass. Glass has been working with Horton for nearly two years.
A breast cancer survivor, Horton wants to stay fit. “I know I wouldn’t be able to do it on my own,” she said, between lateral squats with an 18-pound barbell.
They met after Horton requested a trainer who’d push her and was referred to Glass. Her interest was piqued when she saw Glass working out with another client.
Horton said she knew the trainers at the club were all certified, which she said was the most important of the criteria a prospective client should consider. But she also said personality goes a long way, and that she and Glass have become friends: “If you’re in it for the long haul, you need to make sure it’s someone you enjoy working with.” Katherine Benenati recently certified as a personal trainer through the National Exercise Trainers Association. She's a substitute teacher for aerobics classes at her gym. Choosing a personal trainer Fitness experts say anyone thinking about hiring a personal trainer should check to see if the trainer’s certified by an accredited agency. Other tips Check for references Make sure the trainer has liability insurance Look for a trainer who can assist with special needs Find out what the trainer charges Determine if this is someone you can work with SOURCE: American Council on Exercise
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
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